Livan Hernandez had been smothering the Mets with seven-plus shutout innings, San Francisco had just retired red-hot Mike Piazza, and the batter at the plate – Robin Ventura – was hitless three games into this series. But Giant manager Dusty Baker had a bad feeling when Ventura stepped in against Hernandez; and it turns out his gut was right.

With Edgardo Alfonzo on first and one out in a scoreless eighth, Ventura reached out and stroked a belt-high fastball into the gap in right-center. It rolled to the wall and Alfonzo came around to score the first run of the game. The Mets went on to win 2-0, looking to complete the four-game sweep tonight.

“You know Robin Ventura’s due to get a clutch knock at some time,” Baker said later. Apparently that time was yesterday. Ventura was 0-for-6 in the series, but got a hold of Hernandez’ 2-0 heat, driving in the game-winner, and then stood on second base clapping after proving Baker prophetic.

“I guess when you look at it that way, (I was due). I’ve been due for a long time actually,” Ventura said ruefully. Or maybe Baker was just looking at Ventura’s dominance of Hernandez. He came into the game 10-for-19 lifetime against El Duque’s half-brother, for a sterling .526 average and .789 slugging percentage, numbers he downplayed.

“I don’t think you go up there thinking in the past. [Hernandez] threw great today. He kept everybody off balance, got out of jams when he had to, so it was just nice to get somebody across,” Ventura said. “You just try to put it on the barrel. You just have to hit it low and hope it gets by somebody. You’re just basically trying to hit it on the barrel and hopefully it goes somewhere so (Alfonzo) can score.”

He did just that. And now, after the Giants swept a four-game set from the Mets May 1-4, the Amazin’s are in position to return the favor with Rick Reed on the mound tonight.

“Every game you play is important, (but) it’s nice. They pretty much handed it to us out there, and to come back and play well against them is nice,” said Ventura. But then again, the Mets have played well against everybody of late. They’ve won 10 of their last 12, and Ventura has a dozen RBIs in his last 11 games. And according to Bobby Valentine, the difference is obvious.

“I like seeing Robin smile again. He’s got a little bounce back in his step.”